The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer Page A

humans
     and educate them otherwise. Three, Diego and I had decided that all vampires must be following that guideline, or else the
     world would know about us. Four, they musthave a reason for doing so, and it wasn’t the little popguns of the human police that motivated them. Yeah, the reason must
     be pretty important to make all vampires hide all day long in stuffy basements. Maybe reason enough to make Riley and our
     creator lie to us, terrify us about the burning sun. Maybe it was a reason Riley would explain to Diego, and since it was
     so important and he was so responsible, Diego would promise to keep the secret and they would be cool with that. Sure they
     would. But what if what actually happened to Shelly and Steve was that they’d discovered the shiny skin thing and
not
run? What if they’d gone to Riley?
    And, crap, there went the next step in my logical path. The chain dissolved and I started panicking about Diego again.
    As I stressed, I realized that I’d been thinking things through for a while. I could feel dawn coming on. No more than an
     hour away. So where was Diego? Where was Riley?
    As I thought this, the door opened and Raoul leaped down the stairs, laughing with his buddies. I hunched down, leaning closer
     to Fred. Raoul didn’t notice us. He looked at the crispy-fried vampire in the center of the floor and laughed harder. His
     eyes were brilliant red.
    On the nights Raoul went hunting, he nevercame home till he had to. He would keep feeding as long as he could. So dawn must have been even closer than I’d thought.
    Riley must have demanded that Diego prove his words. That was the only explanation. And they were waiting for the dawn. Only…
     that would mean that Riley
didn’t
know the truth, that our creator was lying to him, too. Or did it? My thoughts twisted up again.
    Kristie showed up minutes later with three of her gang. She reacted indifferently to the pile of ashes. I did a quick head
     count as two more hunters hurried through the door. Twenty vampires. Everyone was home except Diego and Riley. The sun would
     rise at any moment.
    The door at the top of the basement stairs creaked as someone opened it. I sprang to my feet.
    Riley entered. He shut the door behind him. He walked down the stairs.
    No one followed.
    Before I could process this, Riley roared out an animalistic shriek of rage. He was staring down at the ashy remains on the
     floor, his eyes bulging in fury. Everyone stood silent, immobile. We’d all seen Riley lose his temper, but this was something
     different.
    Riley spun and raked his fingers through a blaringspeaker, then ripped it from the wall and hurled it across the room. Jen and Kristie dodged out of the way as it exploded
     into the far wall, sending up a cloud of pulverized drywall dust. Riley smashed the sound system with his foot, and the thudding
     bass went silent. Then he leaped to where Raoul stood, and grabbed him by the throat.
    “I wasn’t even here!” Raoul yelled, looking afraid—I’d never seen
that
before.
    Riley growled hideously and threw Raoul as he’d thrown the speaker. Jen and Kristie jumped out of the way again. Raoul’s body
     crashed right through the wall, leaving an enormous hole.
    Riley caught Kevin by the shoulder and—with a familiar screech—ripped off his right hand. Kevin cried out in pain and tried
     to twist out of Riley’s grip. Riley kicked him in the side. Another harsh shriek and Riley had the rest of Kevin’s arm. He
     tore the arm in half at the elbow and threw the pieces hard into Kevin’s anguished face—
smack, smack, smack
, like a hammer striking stone.
    “What is
wrong
with you?” Riley screamed at us. “Why are you all
so stupid
?” He made a grab for the blond Spider-Man kid, but that kid leaped out of his way. His jump left him too close to Fred, and
     he stumbled back toward Riley again, gagging.
    “Do
any
of you have a brain?”
    Riley smacked a kid named Dean into the entertainment center,